Right By Your Side
by Laughing Princess
Summary: Oneshot. After he attacked Sakura, Sasuke thought he felt no guilt. That is, until Sakura starts to haunt his dreams, and starts to remind him of how he could've had so much more instead of his living nightmare. If only, if only...


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.**

* * *

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke jumped before he whirled his head around, looking for the pink-haired woman, and frowned when he didn't see her. Was she hiding? "What?" He made sure he kept indifference in his tone.

"Do you remember how we first met?"

Sasuke was dreaming, and this time, it wasn't a nightmare—not yet, anyways. He was standing in the middle of a never-ending field of tall grass that came up to his waist. A hazy mist enveloped his surroundings, and he looked around warily. The area was too open for his tastes. Someone might attack him, and—

"Sasuke, why aren't you looking at me?" Sakura's voice egged on. She sounded like she was amused. "You can't find me?"

"I don't want to find you," Sasuke deadpanned. "You're nothing to me, Sakura."

His eyes widened when he felt something grab him, and he looked down. To his surprise, a little girl version of Sakura stood before him, her small hands holding onto the hem of his shirt tightly as she looked up at him. Her hair was short again, but tied up in a simple red bow. She had a small, tiny smile on her face. The look in her eyes was too knowing for Sasuke's comfort, and he narrowed his eyes as a tinkling laugh escaped her lips.

"That's a lie, Sasuke-kun. I'm everything to you."

Sasuke curled his lip at her in disgust. Who was she to tell him what his feelings were? He didn't care for her, not in the slightest...not anymore, anyways. "What makes you so sure, Sakura?" he demanded. "Never once did I tell you I loved you. Why would you mean everything to me?"

"Because I'm your last piece," Sakura cooed, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. "I'm your last piece, Sasuke-kun."

"Last piece of what?" Sasuke was getting tired of her arrogant smirk that rivaled his own. "Quit talking in riddles. You're annoying me."

Sakura laughed again before she took a step back from him, relinquishing her grip on his shirt. "I'm your last piece of innocence. I am the only thing your hatred has never touched. That is why you've never killed me. You _can't_ kill me, Sasuke-kun. Even if Kakashi hadn't appeared you wouldn't have been able to eliminate me. Your attack was much too slow—I could've easily avoided it."

Sasuke frowned, her words irking him. "My last piece of innocence, huh? And how did you come to that conclusion? Because I was weak from my previous fight and didn't attack you as fast as I normally would have? You merely lucked out, Sakura, since Kakashi arrived. If I had ended your life, it would've meant nothing to me, Sakura."

Sakura frowned, her smile fading as she took a step back. Her lips pressed in a thin line. "You're not the same Sasuke I once loved, and you're breaking my heart. I'm the last ray of light from your past, Sasuke-kun, because we had been friends even before the Uchiha's massacre." She paused before she repeated the question she had used as her preamble beforehand. "Do you remember how we first met, Sasuke? Do you remember the reason…why I fell in love with you?"

Sasuke stared down at Sakura. Though he usually didn't have the time to reflect on his life before the massacre, occasionally he would remember a few things. Being friends with Sakura, though, was something he didn't think too much about. But her words stirred his memories, and he paused before his lip curled in a sneer. "I met you when we were toddlers. Your father was good friends with my mother—they used to be teammates. And you and I played a lot back then. Are you saying that you fell in love with me when you were two?" he asked cynically.

Sakura shook her head. "Nope. I fell in love with you when I was five. Don't you remember that day you rescued me from those bullies?"

"No."

A small smile hinted at Sakura's lips. "I guess you wouldn't, seeing as you're a guy and all. That kind of memory probably doesn't mean much to you at all. But to me, you were my hero back then. Unlike all the other girls, I didn't love you because you were handsome. I don't have such petty reasons, you know." She took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know how you knew, but you had left your house to come and find me, and when you did, you saw my bullies pulling my hair and making fun of me. You had gotten really mad and defended me, which scared those girls off." She laughed. "You didn't even have to lift a finger and they scattered! I was so impressed, and I admired you greatly from that point on."

"I don't remember," Sasuke lied, though the more she spoke the more he could remember. How had he repressed that?

Sakura shot him a look, and Sasuke felt oddly uncomfortable. It was as if she knew he was lying to her.

But she shrugged her shoulders, an indifferent expression creeping onto her face. Her eyes twinkled, though, as she continued on. "You had rescued me from those bullies, and afterwards, they never tried to tease me again, because you were always by my side. We did everything together. You're the one who taught me how to throw a shuriken, and who convinced me to try to be a kunoichi. Everything had been going great back then. Everyday we had so much fun! And then everything changed... After the Uchiha massacre happened, you became so different…it was as if you didn't want to know me anymore. Tell me, did you push me away then—like you are now—because you were afraid of getting close to me? That I would leave you? Is that why you were always so cold?"

Abruptly the mist thickened, shielding Sakura from Sasuke's view as he tried to reach out and grab her to no avail, and a violent wind suddenly whipped Sasuke's black hair in different directions, the wind roaring in his ears. As quickly as it started though, the wind ended. When the mist finally disappeared and everything became calm, Sasuke blinked a couple of times; the entire scenery changed, and so did Sakura's appearance.

He was standing on top of a cerulean blue water, in the middle of a large pond encircled by trees. White birds were flying in the sky; white puffy clouds drifted lazily by.

And Sakura, the Sakura he knew of the present, stood face to face with him, the top of her head reaching at his shoulders, and he looked down at her as she grabbed his hands and smiled up at him. Her smile was so breathtaking, the look in her eyes so loving that it made his throat feel tight, making it hard for him to swallow, and she squeezed his hands.

"You don't have to push me away anymore, Sasuke-kun. I've always loved you, and I still do. I won't leave you. When you return to me, I will stay by your side. If you're afraid of losing me, then just get stronger, and protect me." She pulled him into a hug, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her tiny frame and pulled her closer, sniffing her hair as his grip unconsciously tightened. "Sasuke-kun…understand that we all die eventually, but that's no reason to push people away. If anything, shouldn't that give you more reason to be around the people you love?"

She pulled away from his grasp, her hands resting on his shoulders and his on her waist, and she smiled at him tenderly. "I am your last piece of innocence, Sasuke-kun. Your anger and faults don't faze me. I'm always here, right by your side. And it's not just me—" she gestured with her hand behind her, and Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked over her shoulder. Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade, Gaara and his siblings, Shino, Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, Chouji—everyone from his generation—stood in a line, all of them facing him with kind, forgiving smiles. And then his throat caught. His parents and grandparents and everyone else was standing in the distance, watching him carefully with small smiles.

"We are all here for you, Sasuke. We are your family." Sakura beamed up at him, her eyes closed as she tilted her head. "Won't you just realize that and come back home?"

Tears slipped out of her eyes.

"Sakura, wait, I didn't mean what I said earlier, don't cry," Sasuke said softly, reaching his hands out to touch her. But she started to fade, as if she were just an illusion. "Wait! Don't disappear! Wait!"

"I love you, too," Sakura said, smiling, understanding what his actions screamed that which his voice could not.

* * *

Sasuke sat up, breathing heavily. Sticky sweat was on his body, and he groaned. _Just a dream,_ he thought. _Just a dream, and nothing more._

A sigh escaped his lips as he leaned his head back onto the futon, his katana held tightly in his left hand. That dream had felt so real, and for once he could actually remember every single detail. It felt as if he had been really talking to Sakura.

He closed his eyes. He wanted to go back and see her, and apologize. But she wouldn't want to see him now, no matter what she had assured him in his dream. He still had bandages wrapped around his eyes; implanting Itachi's eyes in Sasuke's sockets wasn't exactly _comfortable._ When he saw Sakura again in person, she would be horrified at his appearance. Those eyes that she had fallen in love with weren't with him, anymore. What would she think of him when she realized that they were Itachi's?

He didn't want to think about it. Her rejection would further his shame.

"Something troubling you?" Zetsu questioned. It unnerved Sasuke how he couldn't see where the clone was. "You look like you had a nightmare."

"Not a nightmare," Sasuke said, thinking of how pleasant it had been holding Sakura, the warmth he'd felt when all of his friends had looked at him in such a forgiving way. How his family had made an appearance, and seeing his mother's smile for the first time in years. "My life right now is a nightmare. And I can't go back and change it."


End file.
